For Lucky Investors, The Gamble Pays Off

Dolores Spaun remembers treasure-hunting stories her grandfather told her when she was a child.

``That`s what I always wanted to do, was go out and find a buried treasure,`` said Spaun, a vitamin and health foods distributor from Columbus, Ohio.

But then she learned of treasure diver Mel Fisher and his search for the Nuestra Senhora de Atocha off Key West.

``I thought it was an easier way to do it,`` Spaun said. And this past week, her March investment of at least $1,000 turned to gold and silver.

Fisher struck the mother lode of a treasure he values at $400 million, and Spaun will share the recovery with about 500 other investors, stockholders, Fisher and his divers.

Coupled with an impressive gold coin and artifact strike north of Vero Beach estimated at $200,000 by the state, people were lining up at the docks in Key West to buy the remaining shares of Fisher`s search off the Treasure Coast, using credit cards and traveler`s checks.

Others in the treasure search business intensified their efforts, adding crews.

``Probably everybody will be looking harder than ever before,`` said Tommy Gore of Fort Pierce, a state Division of Archives agent.

But despite the excitement registered by investors and subcontractors from Fisher`s Fort Pierce-Vero Beach searches, some warn that investors should not rush down and plunk their money in such operations.

``There is money to be made in this business, but I don`t think people should invest unless they know what they are doing,`` said treasure searcher Bob Marx, a respected archaeologist, author and historian from Satellite Beach.

Those who invested with Fisher before the strike 40 miles west of Key West, however, are expecting a major return.

Arch Turner, an insurance executive also from Columbus, who invested at least $1,000 in the Atocha search, said he has been told the return could be 94 times the investment based on the manifest of the ship that sank in the 17th century.

And, Turner said, ``The figure could go much higher. Whatever people invested, they will get a handsome return.``

The largest share apparently goes to a partnership formed through Vanguard Ventures of Glen Cove, N.Y., headed by Carl Paffendorf.

Vanguard, through a partnership called Treasure Co., invested close to $3 million in Fisher`s search for the Atocha and other wrecks off Key West, said Vanguard`s director of investor relations, Deborah M. Conway.

The New York firm generally deals in syndications, high technology, mutual funds and real estate, she said. But of the Atocha, she said, ``There are really few investments that have such an investment return.``

``It`s a high-risk, high-profile, very unique type of investment. A lot of research was done before the investment,`` Conway said.

While silver bars weighing a minimum of 60 pounds were being discovered off Key West, a vessel Fisher subcontracted called the X-Isle was discovering an impressive find of gold coins and artifacts about eight miles north of Vero Beach off Indian River Shores.

According to archives agent Gore, 58 gold coins, one gold cup, a gold snake bracelet with emeralds for eyes, 21 fragments of gold rings, five complete gold earrings and an assortment of gold chain fragments were found in 12 to 18 feet of water less than a football field`s length from shore.

The find by Bill van Zyl was the best of the summer off the Treasure Coast, according to Gore.

Diver John Brandon, who heads Fisher`s operation in the Fort Pierce area, thinks the find is significant because it is the furthest that booty has been recovered from what may be the 1715 wreck of the San Roman, one of 11 ships sunk off Vero Beach during a hurricane.

By drawing a line between the new site and old sites, Cobb Coin, the name of Fisher`s operation off the Treasure Coast, could be on the verge of finding a treasure that Marx estimates at $10 million to $20 million. The Fisher firm that struck in Key West is called Treasure Salvors.

Since the Atocha strike, both Spaun and Turner have invested in the Fort Pierce-based operation, and, Spaun says, ``I will do it again on something else.``

Others who have subcontracted from Fisher the rights to search the Treasure Coast think they are close to major finds, too.

``We have three boats on our location, and we are going to add one additional boat next week,`` said archaeologist-turned-treasure hunter Arnold Kortejarvi of Miami, who is working at the site known as Sandy Point, eight miles north of the Fort Pierce Inlet.

A recent find by Kortejarvi was a hand-cut crystal for a queen, in the shape of a crown, he said.

``What`s unique about the piece is it`s Old World crystal, possibly hand-made in Europe, sent to Mexico (for placement) in an ornate frame,`` Kortejarvi said. ``It`s completely intact. Anyone could guess it is (worth) $5,000 to $20,000.``

Roy Volker is another treasure hunter who subcontracts from Fisher the right to dive 8 miles north of Vero Beach.

Since word of Fisher`s strike off Key West, Volker said, ``I`ve had two or three people call me and ask if I`d be interested in investors.`` But because he thinks he is close to a strike, too, he turned them down.

Regardless of the excitement, Marx, the archaeologist, historian and treasurer searcher, warns about rushing in and investing.

``Last year, 27 boats worked on this coast and only one for sure made enough money to show a profitable season,`` he said about searches off the Treasure Coast. ``That was a boat I subcontracted.``